Summary: The first set of Finals matches!

  Chapter 40: Finals Matches (Set 1)

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  The entire css was taken by surprise as only four people were initially called up. Aoyama and Iida, along with Ashido and Jiro were called for their matches, even as Midnight sauntered down to join her students. When they all looked at her in confusion, she smirked.

  "We could run all of these simultaneously, but why should we? The rest of you will be observing and learning what you can. Even those who are defeated will, if Recovery Girl allows it, continue watching. Each of you has sufficiently different scenarios and opponents that it doesn't give you much advantage to watch your fellows…but it does give you a chance to see how they handle it. What they do both right and wrong."

  There were plenty of nods of understanding at that, with the remaining members of the css quickly focusing back on the first set of testing sites as Aoyama and Iida began their patrol first, clearly not having wasted much time pnning. Which…was going to bite them on the ass shortly, as it looked like they were up against Cementoss. In an urban environment. Ouch. Two minutes into the Patrol, the pair got the first hint something was wrong as Civilian Bots began screaming and stampeding. Iida raced off in reaction…only to find himself faced with a wave of concreate as high as he was that was rapidly consuming the street. To Iida's credit, he reacted quickly, grabbing Civilian Bots and moving them into buildings, which weren't currently being affected. Some were still lost to the consuming wave which left a jagged street behind, but more were saved.

  Unfortunately, while Iida's reaction was admirable in a way…it had also been a terrible pn. Something he seemed to realize when Cementoss simply strolled through the street and Iida realized he couldn't reach him over the jagged terrain. Aoyama finally arrived, immediately attempting to shoot the Professor, only to have a series of concreate walls flex upward to absorb the best Naval Laser could do. Cementoss went to send a wave of concrete at the half-French student, only to be interrupted by Iida using spinning kicks to unch chunks of rubble at him.

  Then Cementoss simply turned…and brought down a nearby parking garage on the civilians inside it, taunting the Hero Students as he did. Both of them were clearly shocked and enraged, Yuga shing out again with his ser even as Iida used some of the free running Izumi had suggested to him in combination with bursts of thrust to attempt to close the distance. Cementoss reacted by creating a new wave of liquid concreate that consumed the ser and forced Iida back. Then he colpsed another building, with another taunt. The entire pattern continued twice more, before either of the heroes could come up with any sort of pn.

  To everyone's surprise, it was the usually fmboyant and empty-brained Aoyama that came up with the idea, having used their HSN comms to suggest it to Iida. It was a risky gambit, using Iida's speed to throw his partner into the air. There, the blonde fired down at Cementoss…seemingly. Cementoss did the logical thing by creating a quick bunker as protection from the ser, only for Aoyama to immediately shift the output to come from the focus lenses in his hands, instead of from his main naval lens. Those hands swept a zone between the Professor and Iida, cutting through the jagged spikes that had been keeping Iida at bay. No longer rooted into the ground, Iida bulldozed through the spikes, trusting his armor to protect him from the unanchored concreate spikes. Cementoss lowered his bunker just in time to catch a flying kick to the face from Iida as a result. Their professor was tough, though, and that wasn't nearly enough to finish him. Even so, with Aoyama having managed to catch a third story balcony and now aiming ser fire down into the melee when and where he could, they clearly had their opponent at least contained…

  Which was not the case with the other set of students, who had taken the field after a greater degree of pnning than the first pair. Unlike Iida and Aoyama, Mina and Kyoka had chosen to split up to cover more ground. Given that both of them had a degree of mobility boost, in the form of Mina's acid and Jiro's Bass Booster Boots, the choice made good sense. Things had, however, quickly gone to hell when they discovered they were up against Professor Ectopsm. The man had sneakily deployed his clones in a half a dozen pces before attacking, leaving the separated pair trying to py whack-a-mole as his clones streamed through the crowds of civilian bots, sughtering them as they went.

  The only thing that had salvaged the pair's situation was Kyoka proving she could be ruthless when needed. She'd quickly realized that they couldn't pick so many clones out of the masses of civilians. So she'd turned her nausea-inducing area-of-effect sound waves on the crowds. That would undoubtedly cost them points, but the tactic was non-lethal and had disabled the clones of Ectopsm right along with the civilians. It had actually outright forced him to dispel most of them, as even the limited feedback he got from them, repeated dozens of times, was enough to render the real Ectopsm sick. That trick had allowed them to clear him out of the crowds…but then he'd responded by proving that his Quirk replicated his equipment in full. Including the guns he'd armed himself with. Forced into the position of trying to protect half-disabled crowds from gun fire, the pair wasn't managing very well.

  Jiro had discovered her pulses of sound could at least deflect the paint-rounds the Professor was using, though they would need to check ter to see if she could deflect actual bullets that way. For now, she was pinned down trying to outst her professor while Mina, who most certainly wasn't bulletproof, frantically moved 'nauseous' civilian bots out of the line of fire. From what the observers could see, the best that the pair were going to manage was to outst the timer. And even that was only the case if Jiro could hold out that long with her Quirk…

  As the two teams battled it out, the rest of the css talked quietly among themselves for the most part, though Midnight chimed in whenever she spotted anything noteworthy. Despite cims that they wouldn't get much of an advantage by watching the exams before theirs, several people realized quickly that such was not, in fact, the case. Kaminari proved, once again, that he'd been getting better at thinking things through by pointing out how they'd already seen multiple tactics from both sides and would be able to think up counters. Izumi, however, was quick to burst his hopeful bubble.

  "Nope. I somehow doubt it's an accident that the first two matchups are both teachers. Worse, they are both professors who share almost nothing in common with the rest of our opposing lineup, tactics wise. The closest comparisons are between Cementoss and Kamui Woods, and Ectopsm and Snipe. And I think you can see how bad those are. Professor Ectopsm might be using guns, but it's not the same method Snipe is likely to use at all. Kamui Woods and Cementoss both use Area of Effect, but the practical methods are completely different."

  Several people nodded slowly. Surprisingly, it was Toru that made the next observation.

  "Wait! Does that mean we can predict who will be next, by how the tactics need to differ each time?"

  Momo was quick to shoot that down.

  "Theoretically, we could make odds like that. But they wouldn't be very accurate. You'd have better luck comparing and contrasting strengths and weaknesses. Cementoss was well chosen to give a difficult time to Iida and Aoyama. Ectopsm likely would have been a solid choice against any of us, but it made both the actual students chosen work out their problems with AOE in crowds. I'd bet at least the majority of matches will be like that."

  Nods and sighs traveled around the group, several people obviously immediately trying to figure out their worst matchups. Not that it would likely do them much good, with Nedzu involved. Thankfully, before anyone worked themselves into too deep a rabbit hole with their thoughts, the time limit for the ongoing matches ran out. First Iida and Aoyama's, since they'd started first. Those two had actually nearly managed to capture Cementoss by the end. Then, five minutes ter since the other duo had taken the time to pn more thoroughly, Mina and Kyoka's match ended. There, Jiro was gasping and panting, leaning heavily on Mina and clearly barely conscious. They'd made it, but obviously only just barely. Worse, stopping real bullets that way would likely be much worse, if it was even possible. Something their final review would no doubt cover. Though, speaking of reviews…the two teams at least had their scores showing.

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  Team A: Aoyama Yuga & Iida Tenya – Score: 57

  Team B: Ashido Mina & Jiro Kyoka – Score: 63

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  Everyone winced at how low those scores were, even if they didn't show the full breakdown. Thankfully, before the muttering could grow, Midnight spoke up.

  "An additional word, my cute little students…this one is Pass/Fail. Your final score will be evaluated and reviewed, with the expectation that you improve it for simir tests in the future. But any total above zero is technically a win. Anyone with a score below 50, however, will be doing remedial training over the break at the hands of some of our more enthusiastic trainers. Remember, those scores represent civilian lives and livelihoods. Do not take them lightly."

  Several people shuddered at the way Midnight said 'enthusiastic,' vowing to do everything they could for a solid score. No one really wanted to find out just what she'd meant by that…

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  A/N: So, I tried something a bit different for the finals matches by trying to do two of them at once. This was intended to speed things along so we didn't get bogged down in another tournament style set of chapters. It...sort of worked? Honestly, I think it ended up a tiny bit awkward for these handful of chapters. Don't worry though, Izumi and Momo's fight is the outlier that isn't done that way.